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Posts Tagged ‘Vegan’

Recipe: Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole

June 9, 2010 Leave a comment

The Result:
A slightly spicy but simultaneously sweet curry that fills and warms your belly.  Be sure to serve with rice and maybe naan.  Once you have the spices in stock, it’s also quite cheap!

The Recipe:
Makes 4 servings
1 can or 2 1/2 to 3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 13.5 oz can light coconut milk (double this if you’re leaving it in a crockpot all day)
3/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (approximately 1 medium-sized sweet potato)
1 to 1 1/2 cups Granny Smith apple, chopped (approximately 1 medium-sized apple)
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger or 1 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 1/2 Tablespoon mild red curry paste
2 teaspoon mustard seed or 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard or 1/2 teaspoon mustard (the condiment)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds or 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon allspice

If you will be baking in the oven, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large, deep casserole dish, combine all the ingredients and stir until well-combined.  Cover and bake for 30 minutes.  Stir through, cover, and bake for another 30-40 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

If you will be using a slow cooker, combine all ingredients in the crockpot.  Set to low.  It will be ready in around 5 hours.  If you want to leave it all day, double the amount of coconut milk to 2 cans or put in one can and fill the can with water and add that to the crockpot as well.

Source: Tweaked from recipe sent to me by @InfoJennifer who in turn tweaked it from page 106 of Dreena Burton’s Vive le Vegan

Categories: Vegan Tags: , , , , , ,

Recipe: Sweet Potato Salad with Apple and Avocado

May 26, 2010 4 comments

The Result:
Many summer salads popular to bring to barbecues and other gatherings contain eggs. This is a crowd-pleasing yet egg-free salad you can bring along instead or provide as an alternative for anyone with an egg allergy. It also is vegan and gluten-free (provided you get certified gluten-free nuts). It’s a slightly tangy, genuinely refreshing, cold, cooked veg salad that is full of nutrients and very filling!  It tastes better when it’s allowed to sit a while in the fridge.  You do need to cut up the avocado and add it just before serving to prevent the avocado from browning, however.  Perfect food to make ahead of time to eat later.

The Recipe:
Approximately 4 servings
1 ear of corn (approximately 1/4 of a cup)
1lb sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup unsalted, hulled pumpkin seeds or pepitas (You can toast them or not, whatever floats your boat) or chopped walnuts
1 medium apple (any variety)
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (It’ll be fine without it if you don’t have some handy)
1/4 cup lime juice (approximately 2 limes)
2 Tbs olive oil
avocado, finely diced

Bring a pot of water to boil.  Place the ear of corn in and cook until a fork can easily stick into the kernels, approximately 7 to 10 minutes.  Drain and set aside to cool.

Place sweet potatoes in a sauce pan, cover with water, bring to a boil and boil until tender, about 3 minutes.  Drain in colander and rinse immediately under cold water to cool.  Drain well.

Cut corn kernels from the cob.

Combine apple, onion, cilantro, corn, and lime juice in a large bowl. Stir in sweet potatoes and oil.  Stir in avocado and seeds/nuts just before serving.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: Tweaked recipe from Vegetarian Times

Categories: Vegan Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Best Discoveries of 2009–Boston Places, Web Clips, and Recipes

December 31, 2009 Leave a comment

Yesterday you got to see my best discoveries–aka I encountered them for the first time–of 2009 in movies, tv shows, and websites.  The day before in my reading stats for 2009 you saw my favorite books I discovered.  Today I’ll be finishing up my discoveries lists with Boston places, web clips, and recipes!

Boston Places

  • The Friendly Toast (1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA)
    Known as a hipster joint, this restaurant serves breakfast/brunch foods all day long.  It’s decorated with fun vintage posters, many of which are scifi themed.  The portion sizes are huge!  You really get the bang for your buck here, and vegetarian options are numerous.  You even can get vegetarian sausage!  The servers are also super-friendly.  This is currently my favorite breakfast place in Boston.
  • Berk’s Store (50 JFK St, Cambridge, MA)
    I was hunting everywhere for waterproof knee-high boots without a heel, when I wandered into this store.  Crowded into a small space is the best shoe store I’ve found in Boston.  The styles reflect the needs of Bostonians–good for walking and the weather without sacrificing style.  The employees are friendly and–get this!–you can put a deposit on shoes and have them hold them for you to pick up later without paying anything extra.  This is great for if you find a great pair of shoes/boots but don’t want to drag them on your commute with you.
  • Boston Bed Company (1113 Comm Ave, Boston, MA)
    More than just mattresses, they offer bed frames, bedroom furniture, living room furniture, sofas, and chairs.  This business is locally-owned, and they understand Bostonian’s needs.  Everything is reasonably priced, the sales associates are friendly but also understand giving you space to wander about the store on your own, and you get free delivery (over a certain price point, which I forget right now, but I easily reached it when buying my mattress and box spring).  Definitely check them out for any furniture needs.
  • Hootenanny (36 JFK St aka The Garage, Cambridge, MA)
    The clothing off-shoot of Newbury Comics, this store is great for funky clothing, shoes, and bags.  I got my Glomits there, as well as a steampunk skirt and dress.  They also offer vegan shoes for my vegan friends.  The prices can be a bit steep on some items, but they have continuous sales which knocks them right down to reasonable.
  • Jacob Realty (279 Newbury St, Boston, MA)
    I had to apartment hunt this year, and after many phone calls that ended with me mad at an agent who couldn’t accept my price limit as a real price limit, I finally landed on Jacob Realty.  My realtor actually listened to me and treated me with respect, and she helped me land a great apartment!  Definitely check them out if you’re on the apartment hunt.

Web Clips (yes I know there’s a lot of cats on this list)

Recipes

  • Emeril’s Vegetarian Egg Rolls
    Confession.  I have a deep fryer, and for my housewarming party I wanted to use it.  I’d made egg rolls with my dad when I was a kid, but those were meat-filled (this was before I went veg).  Anyway, I was shocked to discover Emeril has a vegetarian recipe.  They require a bit of work what with making up the filling and wrapping them, but they came out very good.  Even my friends who don’t like egg rolls liked these.
  • Little House Apple Pie (The Little House Cookbook: Fronteir Food from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker)
    I’d gone apple picking with two of my best buddies, and I wanted to make apple pie.  The problem was that I’d never gotten the family recipe from my mother who I disowned, so I needed to find a good new recipe.  Omg, people, you should ditch family recipes more often.  This pie is so good!  Side-note, I always use Emeril’s Basic Sweet Pie Crust with my pies.
  • Vegan Sweet Potato Latkes (current issue of Vegetarian Times, apparently isn’t on their website yet)
    I wanted to make latkes for my Chrismukkah gathering, but wanted a healthier version than the traditional one.  I love sweet potatoes and already had a stash of them, so this seemed like it’d be cool to try.  Instead of eggs, the recipe has you boil some sweet potatoes and mash them to use for binding the shredded potato together.  I was skeptical as to whether this would work, but it totally did.  These were a big hit.

That’s it for my best-of lists!  Hopefully next year I’ll have more recipes to share with you guys.  I hope you all made some fun discoveries of your own in 2009.

Categories: Just for fun Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,